Page 7 of Alpha Mates

Emitt may be smaller than most, but he has a kind soul, and that’s exactly what will make him a good counsellor. He’s always spoken sense into me when nobody else could. He’s loyal, to me above all, and that’s more important to me than broad shoulders. Besides, while he might not look it, Emitt can handle himself just fine.

“Well, fuck them,” I snap, propping my feet up on the table. “You’re going to be a great beta. If anyone says otherwise, I’ll kill them.”

“Sure, let’s start off with tyranny,” he retorts, his grin dimpled. “This is going to be a shitshow.”

“I don’t think it’ll be that bad.”

Emitt turns and watches me with new suspicion. “Why are you so calm about this?” His eyes narrow to slits. “What the hell are you planning?”

“Nothing!” I promise. “Why do you always think I’m planning something?”

“Because you’re a sneaky guy.”

I roll my eyes. “I’m trying the optimistic approach. Ma said if I tried a lighter approach to life, I would probably be more relaxed.”

That was a nice way of putting the most recent lecture I’d gotten on “controlling my outbursts in front of others.”

Emitt hums just as the bell rings and students begin to pour in, including a certain long-haired rodent that meets my scowl with a glare. Biology is the only class we have together. The first day he showed up, I thought I was cursed, stuck with the person I hate most in the one class I actually like, but it soon revealed itself to be a blessing.

Biology is the only subject the oh-so-perfect Julian Heil completely sucks at. The rest of the sciences he manages to get by on, barely, but biology? It baffles him, and I take great pleasure in exploiting that.

Whenever he dares to ask a question, I answer before our teacher can, just to see his eye twitch when he aims one of those piercing glares my way. His proud brain can’t handle me besting him in anything, so of course, I do it all the time.

Today’s plan is no different, until our teacher takes centre stage and says, “Group projects everyone!”

The announcement makes almost everyone groan, but Emitt and I stay quiet where we would’ve normally joined in. By Friday, we’d be neck-deep in orienting ourselves as pack leaders, so this shit did not affect us in the slightest.

“Oh, stop your whining. It’s giving me a headache,” Mrs. Maxine says with an angry wave. “I’m being generous and letting you work in pairs. Come pick your numbers. Whoever has the same one is your partner.”

I wait until everyone collects their scrap of paper before going for mine—number eight.

I wave my lone slip overhead while scanning the room. “Number eight?” Nothing. I turn back to the front. “I think you miscounted.”

Mrs. Maxine rolls her eyes. “Rapunzel over there is number eight.”

I follow her pointed finger to where a bored-looking Julian scowls at me, and there’s not a doubt in my mind that the wicked fucker saw me looking and stayed quiet anyway.

“God, no,” I groan, turning back to her. “Look, Mrs. Maxine—Johanna,” I add, and she snorts. “I’m like your top student. Can you do me a favour and switch me with someone else? Just this once? Please. He can’t even label a cell.”

“At least I can spell cell!” Julian snaps from behind me.

I flip him off behind my back, keeping my focus centred on my amused teacher.

“Normally, I’d let it slide since you’re one of my best students,” she says, then glances towards Julian and lowers her voice. “But he needs the help—desperately. I’m sorry, but you have to stick with him.”

As a human, Mrs. Maxine couldn’t know that Julian can hear her perfectly, but that small pleasure hardly makes up for what she’s putting me through. An hour spent with the serpent.

“Go on,” she says, shooing me away.

I drag my feet over to the empty seat beside the source of the foul scent that made the acid in the lab smell like roses. Lips sealed together, I hold my breath and sit down.

While Mrs. Maxine runs through the project’s requirements, I try to ignore the creature at my side. It’s useless; he’s too fucking close and with the amount of animosity living between us, it leaves Max pacing restlessly in my mind.

Julian, on the other hand, is too busy jotting down everything Mrs. Maxine says. So much so, that I’d think he’d forgotten about me entirely, if not for the white-knuckled grip on the pencil I can hear splintering between his fingers.

Only when Mrs. Maxine finally finishes her explanation, leaving everyone to start their planning, does Julian turn to me. As always, his crisp blue gaze makes an unnerving shudder run through me. There’s no life behind those cold eyes, just a dead, neutral stare.

“What animal do you want to do?”